1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to insect attractants and more specifically to a highly effective attractant for the corn earworm.
2. Description of Prior Art
Attractants for some insect species are known in the art. For example, hexalure, cis-7-hexadecen-1-ol acetate is an effective attractant for adult male pink bollworm moths, Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders). However, propylure, the sex pheromone isolated from virgin pink boll-worm moths failed to attract the male pink bollworm in the field (Science 152,1516-17, 1966). In fact, (Z)-11-hexadecenal, one of the components of the attractant of this invention was found to inhibit the catch of male corn earworm adults by virgin females of the same species (J. Econ. Entomology 68, 603-4, 1975). As little as 5 mg of (Z)-11-hexadecenal resulted in 50% inhibition of male catch by four virgin females while 50 mg inhibited the catch in excess of 99%.